The girls lacrosse fell short of a playoff run last Thursday when the girls lost to Lakeland at home, 20-10.

The Lakeland team had the will to win and the stars to back it up - Lake Orion Head Coach Bill Booth said the team’s top three players accounted for 17 of their 20 total goals.

“They were pretty much unstoppable - the good teams usually have one of these kind of players,” he said. “They had three.”

Still, the Orion girls fought back hard with senior Mallory DeMott leading the offense at three goals. Following her were junior Emily Hendrix and junior Melissa Harcourt with two goals each.

Defensively, Booth mentioned junior Tiffany Smrtnik who saved 14 of the 34 shots on her net.

Problems with the girls’ play seem to stem from draw control. Booth said “seven of 10 times you win the draw you will score a goal.” The team is also playing in a higher division for the first time since their inception, meaning their opponants are naturally larger and more experienced overall. Still, despite the loss, he said the girls had a good overall season.

“We could have a better record, we underachieved on a few games we should have won, but we played hard, we were competitive and we fought to the end,” said Booth. “We didn’t have a single off the field issue and the team was cohesive. My daughter, Chelsey Booth (a 2009 LOHS graduate), also proved to be an outstanding coach.”

Booth said while the 2012 season may be over, the 2013 season seems bright and filled with many returners and potential new stars. Both goalies, Smrtnik and junior Amanda Vaghn will return for next year, as will Hendrix, junior Rachel Cech and many more. Particularily, Booth mentioned two sophomore called up from JV that proved themselves late in the season.

“Kayla Cesarek and Mary Gorsick are both sophomores who are going to be very good players,” said Booth. “Defensively, (sophomore) Nicole Cox is a good player who will return and sophomore Ashely Kirstin will also make the move up to varsity. A lot of these girls are going to play this summer on travel teams and they’ll come back next season and benefit from that offseason play.”

The loss marks the end of the girls hope at a playoff run, but two more regular season games are left to play. The first would be against Walled Lake on May 18 followed by a game against the Wildcats of Oxford on May 21.